Da Iz Biz: Race Report: City of Angels Fun Ride

Doing a little fun ride around some major landmarks in LA! The funds supported the UCLA blood bank so it was a great cause. The "rec ride" was fully supported by LAPD and we got free reign of the roads, something that NEVER happens! So that part was pretty sweet! Biking down Flower as the only vehicles on the road was AWESOME! Passed by a lot of the same cool landmarks as the LA marathon, except on a bike!

Race details:
Los Angeles, California
Bike: 32 miles

Race Summary:
It was a fun ride so let's just start with that. I definitely could've done this in like half the time, but the pace was listed at 10-12mph and there were a lot of bikes on the road for this despite the LAPD escort the entire time. Also, this was Amanda's first ever road ride and she was really scared and, towards the end, really struggling. But she needed this ride in preparation for our NY Bike Tour in a couple weeks so that was good for her.

There was an advanced ride, but you didn't get the LAPD escort except for the first 10 miles. And talking with some folks at the post ride expo, there was a HUGE difference between that 10 miles and the remaining 52. Without LAPD, you're really stuck biking in traffic as normal and it's just a pain. Whereas, we got LAPD support and never stopped except for 3 planned stops to allow the slower riders to catch up.

From a stats perspective, well they're mostly terrible because of the aforementioned "rec ride." The skinny of it all is that my heart rate stayed low and the elevation was pretty pitiful. I mean the 1.4 Aerobic TE score tells you pretty much all you need to know! LOL

Some sweet highlights from the ride include
-LAPD escort meaning open roads and only 3 planned stops
-Biking through many major LA landmarks including Beverly Hills, Hollywood, Downtown, Echo Park, Century City and Olympic Blvd
-Favorite Moment #1: biking thru the 2nd and 3rd street tunnels in downtown with everyone screaming, cops honking horns and people dinging their bike bells
-Favorite Moment #2: flying down Flower St from 3rd until Pico with the open roads and people clapping and cheering yet wondering WTF is going on
-Post race burritos and nachos were pretty delicious and on-point!

All said and done, having done this one and the highlights being pretty cool, I probably wouldn't do it again unless there was a big group wanting to try it out.

Map and Stats Plot: